Crémant d'Alsace

Styles

Principal grape varieties

Terroir

• The vineyard stretches over 120 km in length, often less than 1 km wide, from an enclave near Cleebourg in the north to Thann in the south.
• The vineyard is established on sub-Vosges foothills interspersed with deep valleys, with plantings situated mainly between 200 m and 400 m in altitude.
• The semi-continental climate features cold winters averaging 1.9°C in January and warm, dry summers exceeding 20°C on average in July, with a cumulative effective temperature sum of 1,253°C over the growing season.
• The Vosges massif acts as a screen against oceanic influences, an effect amplified by the foehn especially in autumn, which promotes around 1,800 hours of sunshine per year in Colmar and low rainfall across the vineyard of between 500 mm and 650 mm.
• The collapse of the Rhine Rift Valley created a fault network forming a mosaic of varied soils, including brown soils over schist, granite, or sandstone on the Vosges substratum, and calcareous brown soils or rendzina-type soils on the sub-Vosges foothills.
• The vineyard is established on the foothills of the Vosges massif, on the edge of the Rhine Rift Valley formed by a subsidence event during the Oligocene and Miocene epochs, between 33 and 5 million years ago.

• Julien Dopff experimented with secondary fermentation in bottle on base wines from Alsace after discovering this technique at the 1900 Universal Exhibition in Paris.
• A producers' association formed on 7 November 1974 contributed to defining the 'Crémant' method, leading to recognition of the appellation by decree on 24 August 1976.
• The harvest is carried out at optimal ripeness, by hand, and transported in containers holding no more than 100 kilograms of grapes in order to preserve their integrity.
• The wines may not be released to the consumer market until after a minimum ageing period of 12 months from the date of tirage.

• The white and rosé wines display a complex structure with a dominant acidity that contributes freshness and finesse, accompanied by fruity notes.
• The rosé wines are produced exclusively from Pinot noir, while ageing on lees brings out riper aromatic notes, often buttery or toasted-bread in character, with a fine, light mousse.

• The alternation of warm days and cool nights during ripening, combined with a high canopy height, ensures good ripeness in both sugars and tartaric acidity.
• The average altitude of the vineyard, between 200 and 400 metres, corresponds to the optimal thermal belt and helps maintain a qualitative balance of natural acidity.

Facts drawn from the specification's terroir-link section by automatic interpretation — see the source.

All appellations in France

Sources

• Product specification (BO Agri, PDF)
• Official trade body site — CIVA